Africans are understandibly very proud that someone with African roots is now running such a powerful country. Almost wherever you go now, you will see small children wearing ‘Obama’ t-shirts or vehicles with Obama stickers on them. Here are some other examples:

TL: The Obama hold-all (travel bag), TR: The Obama t-shirt (not much of a likeness, though), BL: The Obama ‘posh’ shirt and BR: The Obama underpants! Don’t blame me – I just take the photos and tell you about them!!

Mind you, even I was surprised by the following example – Barack Obama’s face is even being used to sell toothbrushes, accompanied by the slogan “Change we Need”:

…but I don’t need to change my toothbrush just now and, even if I did, I think I’d buy a make I’ve heard of! Such fun in Africa, eh?

Here’s how: a few weeks ago, my wife and I were invited to a soirée with the British Ambassador, to celebrate the Queen’s birthday (as you do!) As I walked into the large conference room at the hotel, I immediately recognized the kora guru himself, but did a double take. “That looks like Toumani Diabaté! It can’t be!” But it was: you British tax-payers, fret not; your money is being well spent!!! The evening’s entertainment included various singing griots and Toumani playing the kora (he even had a bash at “God save the Queen” but I prefered his rendition of the Malian National Anthem!)

Afterwards, a colleague encouraged me to go up and greet him, so I did (in my best Bambara). Turns out he speaks excellent English!

I told him (i) that I was an ethnomusicologist and (ii) that I was learning the kora. He was very interested. After a bit of a chat (when I also discovered he’d lived in London for a while) I asked whether he gave kora lessons and he said, yes, he’d be happy to give me a lesson! WEHAY! I couldn’t believe it! So, I went along to his house at the agreed time and, after a bit of a wait, the legend himself appeared and greeted me!

The lesson went well and he worked me hard! Taught me how to hold the instrument properly and several scales and exercises to work on. Really useful and an incredible experience! Here we are:

After posting this exciting news on Facebook, one friend said: “That’s like having guitar lessons with Eric Clapton!” Well, I decided to share this comment with Toumani and he replied: “I know Clapton – I’ve worked with him.”

There you go!

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting a village where there is lots of pottery. Have a look at the short video below of our visit, showing traditional Africa pottery methods. Enjoy!

England? Australia? Ireland? America?

Nope – try again! SINGAPORE!!!

I was surprised by how ‘normal’ this place feels – a bit like Milton Keynes or an oversized university campus. Very clean and tidy, very organized, aircon even in the underground trains, blocks of flats almost everywhere you look and good eating places. Definitely worth a visit, but don’t expect trekking in mountains (or even hills!)

Yesterday, I visited a night-time zoo; sounds strange, but it was wonderful! There’s also a whole district called ‘Little India’ (not to be confused with Little Britain!) Dozens of Indian restaurants, shops and market stalls – fascinating!

Just don’t spit, chew gum, J-walk, make too much noise or eat/drink anywhere public and you’ll be fine!

There you go!

The writing on this bike translates as “Champion of Africa”. However, look closely and you’ll see that the letter ‘i’ is missing from ‘Afrique’. I’ve seen more than one bike like this and wondered whether it’s actually another bit of Chinese ‘Engrish‘.

There you go!

It says:
Open the doors for disabled children.
To have access is to exist.
Let’s have a school without barriers.

Nice. You don’t often see this kind of thing in Africa and any provision for the disabled is unusual. Many paraplegics have hand-cranked tricycles, or adapted motorcycles, like the Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili use. Of course, you also see many begging at traffic lights, but this is the first time I’ve seen an ‘access for all’ school in Africa.

The same place also had the following ‘ABC’ of access:

It says:

A for access
B for modified seats
C for equal chances
D for children’s rights
E for equality

Amen to that! Keep up the good work folks!

Apparently run by someone who lived in the USA for a while, this place offers good quality, western-style food in a pleasant, air-conditioned environment and at affordable prices! What more could you want?

Well, as you’re asking, slightly faster service! However, as long as you take a pack of cards with you (as we’ve become accustomed to doing in Africa) then the wait will go quickly!

My favourite item on the menu (so far) is the ‘breakfast burrito’ – only a couple of quid, but HUGE – you could almost share it between two people. Filled with potatoes, cream, veg and other tasty things, it’s a real treat!

They also do coke floats (or sprite or any other fizzy drink), and you can choose any two flavours of icecream from a decent range! Don’t take my word for it – visit yourself! It’s located a block north of the Route de Koulikoro, not far from the Fourmi supermarket or the ‘Express’ restuarant.

Meanwhile, have a butcher’s at the following sites:

This one has info about the restaurant – including a map

This is a blog of some missions folks who went there once.

And here’s a photo of the Broadway’s meat soup and rice, which someone thought worthy of publishing on a blog!

Thanks for reading – bon appétit!

It says: “When we unite in song, we find a common ground: our love for music.” What a great motto – I agree 100%. Let’s have more singing! Finding this on a t-shirt in Bamako is all the more rare and bizarre given that Mali is a French-speaking country and this is in English! I wonder if the owner even knows what it means…

By the way, I also blogged about t-shirts here, here and here. Have a look!

Let me explain:

* When, for example, the electricity board rips out your meter because it claims your bill should be higher than the reading says: W.A.W.A.!

* Or when the plumbers come to mend the feed pipe to the toilet, but cannot find the stop cock, so turn on every tap in your house in order to reduce the pressure enough to do the job (thereby flooding your bathroom to 4″ deep!) W.A.W.A.!

* Or if I go to the post office to pick up a parcel and they refuse to give it to me – why? Because it’s addressed to me and my wife, and she didn’t come! W.A.W.A.!

* Or when you drive your Land Rover through a HUGE puddle in the road, only to discover there’s an open drain hidden beneath the water and two of your wheels are plunged into it before you can say W.A.W.A.!

So, are you dying to know the significance of this catchy little word? Well, it stands for:

West
Africa
Wins
Again

and comes in very useful in frustrating situations. Click here and here for a couple of other bloggers’ take on the phrase.

Now, I don’t want to be too negative about the place; West Africa has many charms and great people. Hearty handshakes, tasty food, fun roads to drive on, great costumes, plenty of sunshine, wonderful languages and warm smiles are just some of the positive aspects of life here.

If you want a more neutral acronym to use on such occasions, then I’d recommend ‘T.I.A.’, meaning ‘This Is Africa’, and, consequently, ANYTHING can happen (and invariably does).

Hey, take a closer look at that photo again – there’s a Big Momma greeting us from behind the sign:

And the thing is, I only noticed her when editing the photo for this blog post! Looks like she had the last laugh, then!

After all, THIS IS AFRICA!

There’s always something musical going on and numerous venues scattered around the city, where you can hear immensely gifted musicians playing on a regular basis! Furthermore, folk are generally happy if you sit down and jam along with them (although it probably helps if you can actually play!)

So, here I am having ‘fun’ and being musical outside the French Cultural Centre in Bamako a while back, with Monsieur Coulibably and Monsieur Traoré (at least, I think those were their names!)

If you want to find some live music, then the French Cultural Centre is a good place to start. Other venues include the ‘Blonba’ in Faladie (where I saw Toumani Diabaté), ‘Le Diplomate’ on the Route de Coulikoro and the Palais de la Culture in Badalabougou Ouest (near the old bridge).

I was at a FREE concert at the CCF the other night and various folk ran up on stage and began dancing in front of the artists performing! This is very common in W Africa and not particularly frowned-upon like is would be in the West. Lots of fun too (although I’ve never plucked up the courage to do it yet…)

Happy music-making!